


Runaway (abandoned)

by rzbrrii



Category: Original Work
Genre: Demons, Friendship, Gen, Injury, Magic, Magic-Users, Male-Female Friendship, Running Away
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-08-27 01:05:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8381893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rzbrrii/pseuds/rzbrrii
Summary: In a world where magic is punishable by death, the heiress of a kingdom runs away from her father and meets a strange man in the woods





	1. Chapter 1

“I love you” he says, smiling sweetly  
The second he said it i felt my face going slack and my heart skips a beat. I take a deep breathe and grin slightly. I huff out a laugh, It was so absurd. This man, the man who had molded me into the unlovable beast that i was through severity and intolerance any imperfect behavior, was claiming to love me. I don’t think he knows the meaning, not that i do either, but that is his fault. I begin to laugh uncontrollably, for a solid minute or so before a can gather my thoughts into a concise reply

  
“ Fuck you.” i say, shaking my head and over enunciating with anger “Just… fuck .. your ass .. so hard” It occurs to me this was not as concise as it could have been. My giggling begins to turn maniacal. At 18 years old i was old enough to make a decision. And this was the last straw.

  
“I'm leaving” I say calmly. Then, “I said i'm Leaving” i say significantly less calmly and storm up the stone spiral staircase to my dressing room.  
Once in my dressing the reality of the situation: i had just declared that i would run away from home. I look out the window at the sprawling landscape of forest and water beyond and am hit with a sudden streak of bravery. (Or perhaps stubbornness. I don't particularly care either way)

  
I turn away from the world and begin my preparation. I look into the mirror at the elegantly dressed young woman before me. I look at the robin's egg and pinstripes the surround my sturdy frame. Its padding pushing up my breasts and corset melding to my waist. I am shortly overcome with disgust for my condition; I look exactly as my father would have wanted. I strip hurriedly until i am naked before the mirror.

  
I observe my figure as i search for more practical clothing - a skirt or dress simply will not suffice. It is athletic (as it could be considering my father's sheltering me from true exercise) but has a layer of soft fat around my hips and butt and stomach.. At last i find several pairs of riding pants. I throw two into a bag and slip another suede pair onto my legs, which are triangular with solid thighs and wiry calves. I throw a blouse that ties at the front one over my head and toss another five or so into my bag. I lace up a pair of riding boots and throw a fur-and -yellow rain jacket into my bag and i am ready to leave.

  
It occurs to me that leaving through the front door would allow for guards to follow me so i settle to climbing down the stone face of the tower. I tie back the curls of my dusty back hair and open the window. I climb my dresser until i can throw my feet through and twist my body so i'm facing inward. Before i transfer my weight from my torso, i search around for a foothold on the stones of the outer wall. Eventually i find it and carefully shift my weight down.

  
It's still softly warm despite its being dusk in April and wind swirl around my face. The sky is royal blue with the last tinges of orange on the horizon and i realize i have not picked the best time of day to leave home, but that it a moot point by this stage. I reach about til 5 ft off the ground until i fall with a thud that knocks the wind out of me. It is probably a foreboding start to my journey but in all honest, apart from the bruises, i was fine. I had been knowledgeable enough to climb into the guardless part of the estate, closest to the forest. I am well on my way to escape.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I pick up my bag and sling it over my shoulder as i walk toward the forest. Stepping in, the difference between it and the grassy pasture is stark. Almost Immediately the ground is coated in slippery moss and knobbly roots. The sky is overtaken by shadow and it becomes hard to see. The trees around me are wrapped in thick ropes of leafy vines so thoroughly that it practically formed walls. Speckles of sunlight filter through the canopy.

  
I walk and contemplate the changes that had occurred over the last hour or so. I had gone from the daughter of the emperor to a homeless drudge living in a wild forest. I shake my head and speak to myself aloud “no. i'm not a drudge yet. I'm still well dressed” i say looking town at my still clean outfit. In my distraction my ankle makes sharp contact with a tree nobble sending flying and landing flat on my face

  
After checking my bag i discovered i had errored in not packing a first aid kit. This was a rather worrying discover as i remember i had not packed any food or shelter either… or really anything but clothes. But there is no option but to continue forward, insufficient supplies or not.

  
I take the tie off my blouse and wrap it around my ankle as tightly as i could. i had no idea how to properly treat a broken ankle (once again not a doctor and i have never been injured before) but that seemed right. My shirt is now hanging open in a manner more revealing than i am fully comfortable with but that will have to do. I stand up, wipe myself off and start to walk forward. My walk comes out as a limp. No. this will not do at all. I am the daughter of the emperor, and as much as i hate him, princess do not limp.

  
I as walk on the forest gets darker, both because it was getting thicker and because it was getting cloudier. And colder. I pull the furry-and-yellow raincoat out of my bag and slip it on. Immediately as i do it starts to rain. Hard. Enough to make the usually musical patter of raindrops against my head and jacket is a splattering and crooked drum roll. I pull up my hood with an exasperated huff and continue trudging as my boots coat with mud.

  
Eventually I reach a clearing. Its is just as dark as the rest of the forest but i can tell it is a clearing because the rain is rougher and unblocked by the canopy. I can see the black of midnight in the sky above me, starless. It is a hopeless void and it reminds me of why i am here. Of every other hopeless void i was running away from. But yet here was another one. I suppose they are unavoidable. Yet somehow it is simultaneously calming as the rain drenches my to the bone everywhere the jacket doesn't cover. I feel a sense of peace. As though the rain is washing my pain away. Like when you scrub yourself raw in a cold shower.My white blouse is now not only untied but completely transparent and clinging to me. My suede pants and matted in little points and dripping into my boots, which slosh with every step. I might as well me naked in the eyes of my usual high society and i feel as deeply relieved as when i stripped myself of my fancy dress and petticoats earlier that night. Filed down to true self, free of my father's influence. I'm so distracted by my introspection i barely notice the claws against my stomach


	2. Chapter 2

I pick up my bag and sling it over my shoulder as i walk toward the forest. Stepping in, the difference between it and the grassy pasture is stark. Almost Immediately the ground is coated in slippery moss and knobbly roots. The sky is overtaken by shadow and it becomes hard to see. The trees around me are wrapped in thick ropes of leafy vines so thoroughly that it practically formed walls. Speckles of sunlight filter through the canopy.  
I walk and contemplate the changes that had occurred over the last hour or so. I had ogn from the daughter of the emperor to a homeless drudge living in a wild forest. I shake my head and speak to myself aloud “no. i'm not a drudge yet. I'm still well dressed” i say looking town at my still clean outfit. In my distraction my ankle makes sharp contact with a tree nobble sending flying and landing flat on my face  
I lie in the moist moss covered ground with the wind knocked out of me for several minutes, breathing hard. When i finally stand my ankle crumbles beneath me with an angry throb. I would have fallen again had i not caught myself on the branch of a young oak next to me. I am now covered in dust and soil with several twig and leaves sticking out of my hair. However, i draw my attention to more important issues. Namely: my apparently broken (or perhaps otherwise injured - i am not a doctor) ankle.   
After checking my bag i discovered i had errored in not packing a first aid kit. This was a rather worrying discover as i remember i had not packed any food or shelter either… or really anything but clothes. But there is no option but to continue forward, insufficient supplies or not.   
I take the tie off my blouse and wrap it around my ankle as tightly as i could. i had no idea how to properly treat a broken ankle (once again not a doctor and i have never been injured before) but that seemed right. My shirt is now hanging open in a manner more revealing than i am fully comfortable with but that will have to do. I stand up, wipe myself off and start to walk forward. My walk comes out as a limp. No. this will not do at all. I am the daughter of the emperor, and as much as i hate him, princess do not limp.   
I as walk on the forest gets darker, both because it was getting thicker and because it was getting cloudier. And colder. I pull the furry-and-yellow raincoat out of my bag and slip it on. Immediately as i do it starts to rain. Hard. Enough to make the usually musical patter of raindrops against my head and jacket is a splattering and crooked drum roll. I pull up my hood with an exasperated huff and continue trudging as my boots coat with mud.  
Eventually I reach a clearing. Its is just as dark as the rest of the forest but i can tell it is a clearing because the rain is rougher and unblocked by the canopy. I can see the black of midnight in the sky above me, starless. It is a hopeless void and it reminds me of why i am here. Of every other hopeless void i was running away from. But yet here was another one. I suppose they are unavoidable. Yet somehow it is simultaneously calming as the rain drenches my to the bone everywhere the jacket doesn't cover. I feel a sense of peace. As though the rain is washing my pain away. Like when you scrub yourself raw in a cold shower.My white blouse is now not only untied but completely transparent and clinging to me. My suede pants and matted in little points and dripping into my boots, which slosh with every step. I might as well me naked in the eyes of my usual high society and i feel as deeply relieved as when i stripped myself of my fancy dress and petticoats earlier that night. Filed down to true self, free of my father's influence. I'm so distracted by my introspection i barely notice the claws against my stomach   
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The arms they are attached to are wrapped around my waist, the creature’s head resting on my shoulder. It curls its needle-like claws against my abdomen, slicing through the thin outer layer of skin so that is leaks blood in thick drips and dyes the lower Lacey part of my blouse a bright cherry red.   
I freeze the way a rabbit does when it thinks the predator won’t see it if it doesn’t move. Except for the rabbit i am already got caught. I try and slow my breathing: yet another futile attempt at being invisible to something so close it can feel my heartbeat. It laughs, high pinched and reedy like a branch scratching gouges into a glass window.   
That eerie laugh brings me to my senses and i realize my efforts are useless. I stand up straighter and try my best to appear brave  
“ What, precisely, do you want” I say in my best i-will-one-day-be-empress voice. The thing laughs again and buries its face in my neck like its my lover. Disgusting. I can feel its teeth needling a mark into my pale skin and it mumbles a single word   
“You”  
I take that as my queue to run my ass the fuck away but i can here the thing ( the thing that wants me) following quickly behind. I glance behind me. This was a mistake. I now know what the thing looks like.  
It is unnaturally tall and gangly, thin enough that i could have easily wrapped my hand around its waist. Ribs and other bones jutted out like door handles stretching its pale grey flesh so thin it turned white and in some places ripped, leaking clear dark bluish liquid. It face was pointed and triangular with empty eye sockets that drooped with lack of support. It had no nose and the lower half of it face was split as though it had been cut with a machete into a mouth hiding hundreds of thin needle like teeth. Both its mouth and eyes gushed more of the same liquid.   
I ran faster but my ankle disagrees and throws me to the ground several times, splitting my knees and bruising my shins. The first two I have no time to stop and catch my breath or consider my injuries. I pull myself up and keep running   
Eventually i reach an area where the greenery is slightly thinner: the trees short and brush-y but cloaked in vines. I push through a layer of ivy to see a squat cottage sitting among the trees. It is made of old bricks with powder blue paint peeling off of them and has a scalloped tin roof. The door is thin plywood with disproportionately heavy brass fixing. I ignore the large knocker and bang on the door and hard as i can, until i can feel my forearms starting to bruise (i'm sure i will be bright purple by the end of this) Then i hear a voice from inside,   
“What. The hell” says a man's voice. He huffs and i hear stomps towards the door. I wish he would walk faster. The the door flies open, banging me in the face.   
“Oh my god i'm so sorry” says the man before he looks up and his eyes widen obscenely. It would almost be comical were the object of this expression not directly over my shoulder. I don’t need to look behind me to know what he's looking at. I know what he's looking at. He’s looking at the thing. I feel its hand hovering over my shoulder almost seconds away from grasping down before the man whisks me inside.


End file.
